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MAJOR POWELL'S 
INQUIRY: 

'Whence Came the American Indians? 



!! 



AN ANSWER. 



II STUDY IN COMPARATIVE ETHNQJ_06¥ 

BY 

JAMES WICKEKSHAM, 
TACOMA, WASH. . U. S. A. 



TACOMA, WASH.: 
ALLEN & LAMBORN PRINTING CO. 

1899. 



MAJOR POWELL'S 
INQUIRY: 

Whence Came the American Indians? 



AN ANSWER. 



A STUDY III COMPARATIVE ETHNOLOGY 

BY 

JAMES WICKERSHAM, 

TACOMA, WASH., U. S. A. 



TACOMA, WASH.: 
ALLEN & LAMBORN PRINTING CO. 
1899. 



AFR I 1913 



Whence Came the American Indians? 



An Answer, 

In the February Forum, Major J. W. Powell, Director of 
the Bureau of Ethnology, under the first above title, presents a 
profoundly interesting statement of the conclusions drawn by 
him from an examination of the entire field of American Eth- 
nology. Within this domain his opinion is entitled to very re- 
spectful consideration and may generally be accepted as con- 
clusive ; in this instance, however, there is such a divergence of 
thought amongst Americanists that this important and final de- 
cision ought not to pass without public dissent. Humboldt the 
philosopher, Prescott the historian of Mexico and Peru, and 
Gallatin and Henry the founders of the science of American 
Ethnology, after many years of careful investigation reached con- 
clusions directly opposed to those now announced by Major 
Powell. Many well known Ethnologists of the present day — 
Putnam, Thomas, Mason and Wilson — find much in the civi- 
lization of America to convince them that there exists a bond of 
relationship therein with Asia, and the earlier conclusions of 
Humboldt, Prescott, Gallatin and Henry are concurred in and 
supported by an ever- widening circle of students ; there ought, 
then, to be no effort to conclude the case upon the opening argu- 
ment. 

"What, then, does the science of Ethnology teach of the 
origin or derivation of the American Indian ? " is the inquiry 
propounded by Major Powell, and his answer is found in this 
language : " We are therefore abundantly warranted in saying 
that the American Indian did not derive his forms of govern- 
< ment, his industrial and decorative arts, his languages, or his 
mythical opinions from the Old World, but developed them in 
the New. Man thus seems to have inhabited the New World 



4 



Whence Came the American Indians 



through all the lost centuries of prehistoric time. In fact, we are 
compelled to believe that man occupied the entire habitable 
globe anterior to the development of arts, industries, institutions, 
languages and cosmological opinions. That this aboriginal man 
was spread abroad from some primitive habitat may be true ; but 
there is no evidenee that the dispersion of mankind was subse- 
quent to the development of distinctly human activities as repre- 
sented by arts, industries, governments, languages and philoso- 
phies, although he had already acquired a supremacy over the 
lower animals which made him the universal species." W 

Briefly stated, his opinion is that while there may be a unity 
of species in the ancient physical man, the civilization of Amer- 
ica was certainly indigenous ; that while the blood of America 
and Asia may have once commingled in that of a common an- 
cestor, the arts, industries, institutions, languages and opinions 
of the American tribes were autochthonous and owed nothing to 
Old World influences. 

In answer it is admitted that there is a unity of blood be- 
tween the tribes of the Old and New Worlds, and, to define the 
issue sharply, it is affirmatively alleged that the American In- 
dians are thus connected in blood with the Mongolian stock of 
East Asia and none other; that the arts, industries, institutions, 
languages and opinions of the American tribes were also derived 
from that quarter, and that, too, in comparatively recent times. 

The question, then, being at issue, in what forum shall it be 
tried and by what rule shall it be determined ? Where and how 
can it be demonstrated that the civilization of Mexico and Cen- 
tral America was or was not an importation from Eastern Asia ? 
Clearly in the forum and by the logic and rules of Comparative 
Ethnology. 

Comparative grammar taught Sir William Jones, Schlegel 
and Bopp that certain great languages of Europe and India were 
descended from a common stock, and by a comparison of vocab- 
ulary and principle the relationship of the Aryan tongues of the 
Old World was conclusively established. It is by a similar com- 



(1) The Forum, February, 1898, p. 686. 



Whence Came the American Indians 



5 



parison of basic principles and details that the relationship be- 
tween the tribes of Asia and America can be proven if it really 
exists. 

The technical rules by which the inquiry is to be guided 
have been stated with sufficient clearness by Major Powell in his 
third annual report as Director of the Bureau of Ethnology. 

Briefly they are, not in order, but in his language, as fol- 
lows : i. "When many similarities among two or more peoples 
are discovered in institutions, languages, and mythic opinions, 
the presumption is that they all have a common origin in some 
ancient stock from whom the savage tribes have been derived." 
2. "Seeking for further confirmation of this, if it was found that 
the two peoples spoke the same language, or allied languages, 
this hypothesis would be strengthened ; if it was found that they 
had other arts in common, that their institutions were alike in 
many respects, and that their mythologies were substantially the 
same, the view that the two tribes belonged to the same stock 
would be accepted." ^ 

It is illogical and unreasonable from slight resemblances 
between the aboriginal arts of Brazil and Syria, for example, to 
attempt to draw satisfactory conclusions touching the common 
origin of these tribes ; the nations to be compared must be in 
geographical juxtaposition ; there must be probable routes of 
migration between them, and satisfactory evidence of an actual 
movement. These conditions are met in the near proximity of 
Asia and America at Berings Strait, and the existence of the great 
ocean current of the North Pacific, — the Kuro shiwo, or "black 
stream" of the Japanese. Berings Strait is but 40 miles wide; from 
time immemorial man has crossed and recrossed it in trade, travel 
and war. Berings Sea is one of the accepted food stations in the 
march of mankind from Asia to America & When the Russians 
first reached East Cape they found natives of America held as 
slaves on the Asiatic shores, and received from the Kamtschat- 
kans such an accurate description of the peninsula of Lower 



(2) 3rd Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. b'5-74. Powell. 

(3) Migration and the Food Quest. Smithsonian Rep., 1894, p. 523. Mason. 



6 



Whence Came the American Indians 



Alaska that the Royal Academy of Science of St. Petersburg 
prepared the very satisfactory map in Muller's "Voyages," 176 1, 
from their accounts. U) Coxe, Whymper, Dall and other au- 
thorities give abundant evidence of aboriginal trade and travel 
from the Anadyr to the Yukon and return. Gradually this 
northern Mongolian stock straggled through into America, and 
established fishing camps southward along the sea coast and 
eastward on the Yukon ; traveling along these lines of approach 
and food supply this stock furnished the populating element to 
the continent,— the Athapascans of the Yukon are represented 
by small tribes via Puget Sound and Oregon, in Arizona and 
Mexico. The very conservative opinion of Dr. Brinton is that 
"no reasonable doubt exists but that the Athapascans, Algonkins, 
Iroquois, Chakta-Muskokis and Nahuas all migrated from the 
north or west to the regions they occupied." (s) All main mi- 
gration routes in the two Americas go south and east. This in- 
flux from Northern Asia brought the demotic characteristics of 
the savage pre-Columbian tribes, — the bow and arrow, the spear 
and war-club, basket-making and the birch-bark canoe; it has 
been aptly called the Populating Immigration. 

The Kuro s/itwo, or black stream of the Japanese, flows 
eastward from the land of the Rising Sun, passes along the south 
shores of the Aleutians, and, reaching the coasts of America, 
sweeps southward past the fir-clad hills of Washington and Ore- 
gon to enter the westward flow of the northern equatorial current 
off the peninsula of Lower California. It is this great ocean 
highway that we must examine for evidence of civilized migra- 
tion ; here is a route over which; without compass or chart, the 
civilization of Asia may have reached America ; it has for count- 
less centuries cast the wrecked and drifting East- Asian upon the 
shores of America from the outer Aleutians down to Mexico. 
One well-authenticated case illustrates the probability of the mi- 
gration of civilization by this route In December, 1833, a 
Japanese junk was thrown ashore at Osette, on the coast of 
Washington, twenty miles south of Cape Flattery. Three mem- 



(4) Voyages from Asia to America, M uller. 

(5) The Myths of the New World, p. 47. Brinton. 



Whence Came the American Indians 



7 



bors of the crew — the captain, mate and a boy — were alive, 
while fourteen had died on the long drift across the ocean. The 
vessel had been disabled in a typhoon off the coast of Japan 
and had drifted helplessly across the ocean to be wrecked on the 
shores of America ; it was loaded with cotton cloth, pottery and 
rice. The Makahs made captives of the living seamen, and per- 
mitted them to send a letter to the Hudson Bay Post at Fort 
Vancouver on the Columbia River. Commodore Wilkes learned 
the particulars of this wreck when in the Columbia River in 
1841, and says of it : "The officers of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany became aware of this disaster in a singular manner. They 
received a drawing on a piece of China paper, in which were de- 
picted three shipwrecked persons, with the junk on the rocks, 
and the Indians engaged in plundering." < 6) In this wreck we 
see how cartainly the Kuro shiwo may have been the route of 
migrating, though involuntary, civilization to America ; here 
were Buddhists, with a hieroglyphical letter, on paper, among the 
rude tribes of America ; here was cotton cloth and pottery, both 
of which, by the way, the Aztecs and Mayans manufactured, 
thrown upon the continent ; here was the seed of the Mongolian 
civilization ; it only needed the good soil to propagate it. Grant 
that this seed has been drifting, as it certainly has, to this con- 
tinet for long centuries, and you have the story of the growth of 
an Asiatic plant upon American soil. The Aleutian Islands 
have been strewn with Asiatic junks ever since the beginning of 
their history. Taponski Island, near Sitka, received a living 
crew that had drifted to that coast; they have been cast ashore 
on Queen Charlottes and Vancouvers Islands, and upon the 
shores of Washington, Oregon and California. " In 1845 the 
United State frigate "St. Louis" took from Mexico to Ningpo, in 
China, three shipwrecked Japanese, being survivors of the crew 
of a junk which had drifted from the coast of Japan entirely 
across the Pacific Ocean and finally stranded on the coast of 
Mexico, where they remained two years." (?) Every Japanese 
vessel for thirteen centuries has carried the calendar of China, 

(6) U. S. Exploring Expedition, vol. 4, p. 295. Wilkes. 

(7) Japanese Wrecks, p. \%, Brooks. 



s 



Whence Came the American Indians 



her hieroglyphical writing and the Buddhist or Taoist religion ; 
hundreds of such wrecks have been thrown on the west coast of 
America within historic days ; here was the route and means by 
which America received from Asia her Civilizing Immigration. 

The study of the human body, or the science of somatology, 
affords Major Powell no evidence of the kinship of the yellow- 
skinned, black-haired, beardless, tribes of Eastern Asia and the 
continents of America. He recognizes the entire uniformity of 
the American tribes in height, color, hair and other standards, 
and notes the absence of the African dwarf and the oblique eye 
of the far East. Has Major Powell forgotten that the oblique 
eye is a disease and not a racial characteristic ? Dr. Brinton 
tells us that it is known to surgeons under the name of epicanthus, 
is a slight deformity of the eyebrow, and rather prevalent in a 
few American tribes. < 8 ) The uniformity in physical characteris- 
tics from Berings Strait to Terra del Fuego is strong evidence of 
a recent separation of these tribes from the parent race. If the 
separation from the primordial stock occurred, as Major Powell 
asserts, in a remote geological period, why have they not devari- 
cated into extreme types like those in the Old World? Why do 
we not find tribes in America as unlike as the white and black 
races, or corresponding to the pygmies of Africa ? Is it not be- 
cause of the recent separation from the parent race ? 

Then, too, many eminent naturalists disagree with Major 
Powell on the main question. Professor Flower, president of 
the Anthropological Institute of America, in his address to that 
body in 1885, announced his opinion to be that mankind is 
divided into three extreme types, " represented by the Caucasian 
of Europe, the Mongolian of Asia, and the Ethopian of Africa," 
and he includes the American Indian in the Mongolian group. 
Cuvier reached this conclusion and is followed by Huxley, 
Latham and M. de Quatrefages. One of the latest inquiries 
along this line is that of Dr. Paul Topinard, in his " Elements 
d'Anthropologie Generate." Basing his conclusions upon critical 
comparisons of height, color, hair, the nasal and cephalic indices, 



(8) Essays of an Americanist, p. 64. Brinton. 



Whence Came the American Indians 



9 



and other accepted standards, he concludes that the American 
tribes belong to the Mongolian family. We have abundant 
authority in the opinions of great naturalists in asserting that the 
American Indians belong to the Mongolian stock. 

Philology has discovered but two types of language spoken 
throughout the Mongolian regions of Asia and amongst the native 
tribes of America. These are known as the monosyllabic and 
agglutinative types, and the following classification shows their 
distribution : 



| *' n0S ^ a 1C * (2. Otomis, Mayas and others. 
Mongolian J 

Languages. j (i. The Turanian stock. 

J 2. Agglutinative. <2. The American tribes gen- 



( erally. 

We are informed by Dr. Brinton that both the Chinese and 
Mayan languages "tend toward monosyllabism," and in his 
scholarly essays he classes them together as having this common 
characteristic.^) Bancroft says that in the Mayan tongue "mono- 
syllabic words are of frequent occurrence," while "the Otomi 
claims our attention in one particular, it is the only true mono- 
syallabic language found in the Pacific states. "( 10 > Gallatin says 
of the Otomi: "From all that precedes, since the Otomi words 
are either monosyllabic, or, if having more than one syllable, 
each of these retains its former sense; and since all the syllables 
of the language have a signification and therefore are words, * 
* * the Otomi language must be called and held to be mono- 
syllabic. And as it is impossible that a monosyllabic should be 
derived from a polysynthetic language, we must seek for its origin 
elsewhere than amongst the Mexicans, the Tarascas or any of the 
other languages of Anahuac." d?) While some philologists have 
sought to establish a fundamental difference between the langua- 
ges of America and northeastern Asia, Humboldt and other high 
authorities have declared them to be of the agglutinative type 
and, therefore, Turanian at base. Humboldt declared: "I have 



(9) Essays of an Americanist, p. 215. Brinton. 

(10) Native races. Vol. 3, p. 737. Bancroft. 

(11) Trans. Am. Eth. Soc. Vol, l., p. 297. Gallatin. 



10 Whence Came the American Indians 



selected the American languages as the special subject of my in- 
vestigations. They have the closest relationship of any with 
the tongues of northeastern Asia." < I2 > A distinguished Canadian 
philologist reaches the conclusion: "Of all the Asiatic languages 
the Japanese-Koriak have the closest affinities to those of 
America. This I found for myself, but I need not have done so, 
for Dr. Latham long ago pointed out the fact. He says: "In 
the opinion of the present writer, the Peninsular (Japanese- 
Koriak) languages agree in the general fact of being more akin to 
those of America than any other." fo) Max Muller states that "the 
most characteristic feature of the Turanian languages is what has 
been called agglutination, or * 'gluing together ."( T 4-) Major Powell, 
in his official "Introduction to the study of Indian Languages" 
calls attention to agglutination as the prominent characteristic of 
the American tongues, and quotes Trumbull with entire approval, 
who says: "What the Indian has so skillfully put together — 
'agglutinated' or 'incorporated' — must be carefully taken to pieces 
and the materials of the structure examined separately." ( j s) A 
monosyllabic language connects the Oriental civilizations of China 
and Central America; agglutination connects the barbarism of 
northeastern Asia with that in America. 

There are in America, north of Mexico, sixty separate stock 
languages, differing in vocabulary yet agreeing generally in struc- 
ture. Major Powell calls attention to them and asserts that they 
have not been multiplied merely by a separation of the tribe into 
bands, who have through isolation produced separate stocks. 
He cites the widespread distribution of theEskimauan along 10,- 
ooo miles of the sea coast, and the long isolation of many of its 
families, yet all speaking the pure tongue, as proof of the law. 
He explains the multiplication of these stocks by the contact of 
different languages, and asserts, "that the chief factor in differ- 
entiation is the compounding of different primordial tongues." 

Of the sixty stock languages north of Mexico but nineteen 
were found east of the Rocky mountains; forty-one are found 

(12) Essays of an Americanist, p. 330. Brinton. 

(13) Trans Literary and Hist. Soc. Quebec, 1880-81. p. 67. Campbell. 

(14) Science of Language. Vol. 1. p. 291. Muller. 

(lb) Introduction to the study of Indian Languages, p. 62. Powell. 



Whence Came the American Indians 



11 



along the salmon streams emptying into the Pacific, in the states 
of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alas- 
ka/ 16 * According to his law, then, we are to account tor the great 
number of Pacific shore languages by a conceded contact between 
different primordial tongues. It is not the sea shore alone which 
produces them, for no such remarkable variety existed along the 
Atlantic from Greenland to Terra del Fuego, nor from Mexico to 
Cape Horn. Do not the hundreds of known wrecks along this 
Pacific beach, whereby the different agglutinative and sometimes 
monosyllabic dialects of Asia have been cast into bands of Orar- 
ians, "dwellers on the shore," fill the measure of the law, and 
afford ample evidence of the origin of this linguistic variety? 
Then, too, all the tribes north of Mexico trace their lines of mi- 
gration from the northwest; this, and Maj. Powell's law, leads 
irresistably to the conclusion that all languages north of Central 
America originated, or were compounded, on the North Pacific 
beach. Either the Powell law is at fault, which I do not admit, 
or the North Pacific ocean current, weighted for twenty centuries 
with the flotsam and wreckage of Eastern Asia explains the pre- 
sence of that remarkable linguistic variety along the salmon 
streams of the Pacific slope. The linguistic stocks north of 
Mexico originated in the contact, along the North Pacific beach, 
between the civilizing tongues of Asia and the populating tongues 
coming through the Bering Sea region. 

It is impossible in a brief article to compare everything 
which may be akin in Asia and America ; it is necessary to limit 
the field. This may be done by comparing either the wild tribes 
or the semi-civilized nations, and as the latter will afford the best 
test, further comparisons herein will be made between the Chi- 
nese type and the equally civilized Aztec-Mayan nations. 

The Chinese type spoke monosyllabic dialects ; monosyl- 
labic dialects were spoken in Mexico and a compound in Central 
America. Let us compare the written characters of these mono- 
syllabic tribes. Neither the Chinese nor Aztec-Mayan written 
characters are founded upon an alphabet or syllabary. In the 



(16) Linguistic Stocks of American Indians. Maj. Powell. 



12 



Whence Came the American Indians 



beginning they were pictographic or ideographic. In China and 
Central America a wing or the streaming hair denoted flight, 
being the ideogram for the flying bird or the running man. In 
both lands their ideographic signs were reduced, in writing, to a 
few simple and conventionalized outlines of the original picture. 
In both systems two or more characters are added together, and 
the compound often conveys a meaning which neither of the 
simple characters had theretofore suggested. For instance : In 
both a circle represented the sun ; joined by a wing or hair affix, 
it becomes the ideogram for the flight of the sun across the 
heavens. In both systems there were simple and abbreviated 
characters, but many more composites. 

The sun symbol in both China and Central America was a 
circle with a dot, representing the numeral one, in the center. 
The Chinese name for the sun is " zhih," or in the Shanghai 
dialect "nih"; the Mayan name is "kih" or "kin"; the Chi- 
nese name means " the sun, a day, day time, in the time of, the 
day for a thing, as anniversary; in casting lots, means the em- 
peror, his palace, day or reign. "to) The Mayan term "kih" or 
"kin" means "the sun, a day, a time or epoch, an occasion or 
opportunity, the sign or constellation under which one is born, 
hence fate or fortune. " (l8 ) Here we find the same monosyllabic 
word, the same ideogram, having the same meaning in both 
China and Central America. 

The moon symbol in both lands was derived from the cres- 
cent. The Chinese name for moon is "yueh," and it means 
both moon and month. to) The Mayan word is "U," having the 
same sound value as the Chinese word, though spelled differently 
by Europeans ; the Mayan word means, also, both moon and 
month .to) Again we have the same monosyllabic sound, repre- 
sented by the same ideogram, while the word has the same dual 
meaning. 

Chinese and Mayan cardinal point ideograms have these 

(17) A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, p, 293. Williams. 

(18) The Annals of the Cakchiquels, p. 223. Brinton. 

(19) A syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, p. 1129. Williams. 

(20) Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, vol. 1, p. 435. Perez. 



Whence Came the American Indians 13 



common characteristics ; they are composites ; the modifier is 
placed above the sun symbol in the east and west characters ; 
each of the ideograms for the east and west has the wing as an 
affix, denoting the sun's movement across the heavens ; the sun 
symbol appears only in the east and west ideograms ; the north 
character in each land has the back for its main idea, it repre- 
sents the emperor facing the south ; the character for south refers 
to the origin of plant life. The Mayan ideographic signs for the 
cardinal points contain only Chinese elements, neither more nor 
less ; they are as fairly Chinese ideograms as can be found in any 
Middle Kingdom dictionary. 

Brinton says of the Mayan writing that "it was a hiero- 
glyphic system, known only to the priests and a few nobles ; it 
was employed for a variety of purposes, prominent among which 
was the preservation of their history and calendar ; it was a com- 
posite system, containing pictures (figuras), ideograms (carac- 
teres), and phonetic signs (letras)."( 21 ) Identically with it the 
Chinese system of writing contains pictures, ideograms and 
phonetic signs, and nothing more. Other nations reached an 
alphabetic system ; "not so with the Chinese language ; this still 
maintains its ideographic character, and is now used as the writ- 
ten medium for the intercourse of more human beings than any 
other. r C 22 ) 

The next upward step in the evolution of ideographic writing 
was taken when the picture of the object became so intimately 
associated with the sound as to assume a phonetic value. A 
large number of characters in the Chinese and Aztec-Mayan 
were thus given a phonetic value. Brinton recognizes this ele- 
ment in the Mayan system, and concludes: "Hence affixes, 
suffixes and monosyllabic words are those to which we must look 
as offering the earliest evidences of a connection of figures with 
sound." < 2 3) Brinton, Bancroft, Schellhas and Thomas assert that 
a large number of the Mayan ideograms were given a phonetic 
value. Precisely this same division of hieroglyphics into ideo- 

(21) Essays of an Americanist, p. 246, Brinton ; Vestiges of the Mayas , 
p. 65, Le PloDgeon. 

(22) A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, p. XI. Williams. 

(23) Essays of an Americanist, p. 198-200. Brinton. 



14 



Whence Came The American Indians 



graphic and phonetic characters is the peculiar feature of the 
Chinese system. Their written characters are classified as radi- 
cals, which suggest an idea, and primitives or phonetics, which 
denote sound. This division is the same in both lands and lies 
at the very base of both systems. 

The Chinese tribes and the Aztec-Mayan people were paper 
makers; they both made paper from vegetable fibre, by the same 
process of manufacture; both arranged their writings into books 
folded fan-like with board backs. Both wrote from right to left 
and from top to bottom. Veytia, who was personally acquainted 
with the Mayan system, says: "It is to be noted that most of the 
calendars, - those of the cycles as well as those of years and 
months which they used to form in circles and squares, ran from 
right to left, in the way the Orientals write, and not as we are 
accustomed to form such figures." < 2 4) Major Powell reaches the 
following official conclusion from a careful examination of the 
American codices: "First: That the order in which the groups 
and characters are to be read is around to the left, opposite the 
course of the sun, a point of vital importance formerly much dis- 
puted." < 2 s) In each of these matters the two systems of writing 
exactly agree; the Chinese write from right to left, from top to 
bottom and in a circuit opposite the course of the sun, and both 
wrote the same kind of ideographic characters, on the same kind 
of paper in the same form of volume, and with the same kind of 
brush. The Chinese were the first people in the Old World to 
use moveable type; the Aztecs, according to Dr. Brinton, also 
used moveable type in their books. ^ 

Both the Chinese and Aztec-Mayan people used the digital 
system of numeration; it is based upon the count of the fingers 
and toes. In their graphic representation of numbers, too, there 
is a remarkable similarity. Among the Chinese, "in ancient 
times calculations were carried on by means of SAeu, or tallies 
made of bamboo, and the written character is evidently a rude 
representation of these. From i to 5, the numbers are repre- 

(24) Hist. Ant. Mex. Vol. 1, p. 48. Veytia; Essays of an Americanist, pp. 

159, 161. Brinton. 

(25; 3rd Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. XXX. Powell. 

(26) The Myths of the New World, p. 24. Brinton. 



Whence Came the American Indians 



15 



sented by the respective number of parallel strokes; from 6 to 9, 
inclusive, one stroke is drawn to represent 5, and the additional 
number is represented by so many strokes perpendicular to it." ( 2 7) 
Herewith follows a table arranged according to this method, by 
the side of the Mayan numerals, up to nineteen, above which we 
do not know the Mayan: 





Chinese Numeration. 


MAYAN NUMERATION. 


No. 




















Numbers. 


Numerals. 


Numbers. 


Numerals 


I 


I 


1 


Hun 


• 


2 


Erh 


1 1 


Ca 


• • 


3 


San 


1 1 1 


Ox 


• • • 


4 


Sz 


JIM 


Can 


• • • • 


5 


Wu 




Ho 




6 


Liu 




Uac 


• 


7 


Chi 


1 l 


Uuc 


• • 


8 


Pa 


1 1 1 


Uaxac 


• • • 


9 


Chiu 


1 1 1 1 


Bolon 


• • • • 


10 


Sh 


+ 


Lahun 




1 1 


Sh-i 


! + 


Buluc 


• 


12 


Sh-erh 


M + 


Lahca 


• • 


*3 


Sh-san 


111 + 


Oxlahun 


• • • 


14 


Sh-sz 


1111 + 


Canlahun 


• • • • 


15 


Sh-wu 


+ 


Holahun 




16 


Sh-liu 


1 + 


Uaclahun 




17 


Sh-chi 


1 ' + 


Uuclahun 




18 


Sh-pa 


"I + 


Uaxaclahun 


• • • 


l 9 


Sh-chiu 


1111 + 


Bolonlahun 


• • • • 



In the Mayan the straight lines may be indiscriminately 
drawn vertically or horizontally; if the number eleven was 
written in Mayan by placing the two lines vertically, the dot for 
one would be placed to the left, as it is in Chinese. The figures 
1 to 4 are dots in Mayan, short lines in Chinese ; the figure 5 
is a short horizontal line in both ; ten is composed of two lines, 



(27) The Chinese and Japanese Repository. May, 1864, p. 448. 



16 



Whence Came the American Indians 



crossed in Chinese, parallel in Mayan ; fifteen is composed of 
three lines in each system. The symbols in both are arbitrary 
and evidently represent the ancient s/ieu, or tallies. 

All the numerals in the Mayan writings are painted either 
red or black/ 28 ) and so they were in the Chinese. " In Tsin's 
original work, positive and negative numbers are distinguished 
by the former being in red ink, and the latter in black • and this 
custom seems to have been in use long before his time ; for we 
find Liu Hwui referring to it in the sixth century. It is said to 
represent the bamboo tally numerals, used in ancient times." to) 

The rainbow spanning the Mayan sky was called " ix Kan 
leom," or the spider's web. The Chinese call it ti ; the ideo- 
gram representing it is a composite of two simple characters, the 
first meaning insect and the other meaning girdle, to connect 
and spider ; it has the same meaning as the Mayan term — it 
means the spider's web. 

An eclipse of the sun or moon produced the same terror 
and commotion in China and Japan that it did in Mexico and 
Central America, and for the same reason. The Chinese 
believe that the eclipse is caused by a dragon eating the sun or 
moon. In Yucatan the people thought the luminary was being 
devoured by the ant Xulab or other dragon, and in both regions 
loud noises were resorted to for the purpose of scaring away the 
ravenous monster — and, Doolittle adds, "invariably with success." 

The Chinese thunder god is half bird, half human ; he 
wears a bird beak, his legs end in bird's claws, and behind 
human arms he supports bird's wings. In one hand he wields a 
mallet, in the other he holds a chisel ; these represent the dual 
powers, and by the stroke of the mallet upon the chisel thunder 
and lightning are produced. (30) The Mayan tomahawk, called 
bat, was the symbol for thunder and lightning ; and, Brinton 
adds, "Another figure which seems to indicate the same is the 
broad-pointed object seen in the hands of deities ; w (3«) the mallet 
and chisel of the Chinese is represented by the tomahawk and 

(28) A Study of the Manuscript Troano, p. 17. Thomas. 

(29) The Chinese and Japanese Repository, Jane, 1864, p. 497. 

(30) Social Life of the Chinese, vol. 2, p. 300. Doolittle. 

(31) A Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics, p. 104. Erinton. 



Whence Came the American Indians 17 



chisel of the Mayan; both represent the dual powers which, 
striking, produce thunder and lightning. Brinton describes one 
of the Mayan deities as "the personification of the thunder 
storm. In expression she is severe, her lips protrude in anger, 
and her hands and feet sometimes end in claws ; in short, 
the thunder deity with beak and claws, exactly like that of the 
Chinese. 

The Chinese and Aztec- Mayans believed that rain could be 
produced by supplications addressed to the rain god; their 
written ideographic characters for rain and water are identical. 

A belief in witchcraft, divination and astrology was common 
to China, Japan, Mexico and Central America. From the num- 
ber and name of the day and hour of birth the priest in China 
and Central America pretended alike to forecast the destiny of 
the child and to fix the power and spiritual influences which 
should govern its life. The priests in each land arranged an an- 
nual almanac, fixed the good and ill fortune of each day, and 
this almanac was used as the people's guide in all matters for that 
year. No important event in either land was undertaken until 
the almanac was consulted and the day found to be propitious- 
These almanacs contained astrological and prophetic rules and 
regulations, medical recipes and directions, and were on the same 
exact plane as to form, material and contents. 

Their profoundest philosophy agreed in every respect. Each 
believed that a masculo feminine organization of the universe 
was evolved out of chaos. The Yang and Yin symbol, denoting 
the masculo feminine theory, is found in both lands. The num- 
ber three was sacred; Heaven, Earth and Man constitute the 
Chinese san tsat, or three powers, and is represented among their 
symbols by a circle divided into three parts, the upper represent- 
ing heaven, the center man, and the lower part the earth. Brin- 
ton says of the Mexican three powers : " The triplicate costitu- 
tion of things is a prominent figure of the ancient Mexican 
philosophy, especially that of Tezcuco. The visible world was 
divided into three parts, the earth below, the heavens above and 



(32) A Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics, p. 63. Brinton. 



18 Whence Came the American Indians 



man's abode between them. The whole was represented by a 
circle divided into three parts, the upper painted blue, the lower 
brown, the center white. "(33) 

Each system gave special prominence to the number four ; 
the square form of their world gave four cardinal points, four 
seas and four divisions of the land ; there were four colors, four 
deities, four elements, four viscera, and other functions and 
powers, each assigned to a cardinal point ; there were in each 
system four great movements of the sun, the solstices and equi- 
noxes, by which the four seasons were fixed, and each of these 
was also assigned to a cardinal point ; the map of the sky was 
divided into four parts and each part assigned to a cardinal point. 

The Emperor in each land was the "Son of Heaven," and 
ruled by divine right ; he was the head of both church and state. 
Both lands supported monasteries filled with monks, who burned 
incense, chanted and offered sacrifices to the same character of 
gods ; both supported nunneries. Human sacrifice was offered 
in China as in Mexico, but not with such horrid prodigality. 
Sacrifices upon the great altars of Pekin are fruits, flowers, birds 
and animals, as was the custom among the Mayas. 

God, the Supreme Essence, was called Teotl by the Aztecs 
and Tao by the Chinese ; all the deities below the Supreme 
Essence were but deified heroes. In opposition to the Aztec 
Teotl is the evil one — the Owl ; the Taoists of China look upon 
the owl as one of the servants of the evil one, — it is the bird 
which calls for the soul of the dead and conveys it to the Under- 
ground World ; all the dead in China and America went to this 
underground world, and both locate it in the north. Neither of 
them believed in any other heaven, and neither believed in a 
hell. 



(33) Essays of an Americanist, p. 154. Brinton. 



Whence Came the American Indians 19 



The following is a comparative list of a portion of the 
deities of the Chinese and Aztec-Mayans : 



CHINESE. 


AZTEC-MAYAN. 


Tao, the Supreme Essence; God. 

Chaos, before the beginning. 

Ta-Kieh, bisexual life. 

Pan-Ku, male ancestor — Adam. 

Nu-Kua, female ancestress — Eve. 

Ti-yu, Underground World (North). 

Owl, the evil one. 

Tai-Sang, lord of underworld. 

Ling Chu Na. "Mother." 

Ma-Chu. "Grandmother." 

Tsao chun, household god. 

Huo Shen, god of fire. 

Kuan Yu, god of war. 

Tu Chien Kui, god of Gamblers. 

Ngu Hieng Kung, god of Thieves. 

Ioh Uong Chu Su, god of Medicine. 

Jih Chu, the sun god. 

Hou I, the moon god. 

Hou Chi, god of Agriculture. 

Shen Nung, "divine husbandman." 

Ts'ai Shen, god of Merchants. 

The, "Short Black Devil" 

Lu Pang, god of Artisans. 

Yu Shih, god of Water. 

Kuang Ing Kuk, goddess of children. 

Nu Kan, serpent woman. 

Teu Kwei, god of North Star. 

Feng Pe, god of Air, 

I-bi, god of Wine. 

Wen-ti, god of Literature. 

Yama, god of Death. 


Teotl, the Supreme Essence; God. 
Chaos, before the beginning. 
Gukumatz, bisexual life. 
Xpiyacoc, male ancestor — Adam. 
Xmucane, female ancestress — Eve. 
Mictlan, Underground World (North) 
Owl, the evil one. 
Mictlan- tecueti, lord of underworld. 
Tonantzin, "Our Mother." 
Tocitzin, "Our Grandmother." 
Tepitotons, household god. 
Xiuh-tecutli, god of fire. 
Huitzilopochtli, god of war. 
Macuilxochitl, god of Gamblers. 
Tlozolteotl, god of Thieves. 
Oxomococipactonatl, god of Medicine. 
Tonathiu, the sun god. 
Mextli, the moon god. 
Centeotl, the god of Agriculture. 
Ghanan, god of Fertility. 
Yaca-tecutli, god of Merchants. 
Ixtlilton, "the little Negro." 
Napatecutli, god of matmakers. 
Tlaloc, god of Water. 
Yoalticitl, goddess of children. 
Cihuacoatl, serpent woman. 
Xaman Ek, god of North Star. 
Quetzalcoatl, god of Air. 
Acan, god of Wine . 
Ix Chebel Yax, god of Literature. 
Ah Puch, god of Death. 


There is an interesting resemblance between the Chino- 
Japanese and the Mayan gods of wealth. 


CHINO-JAPANESE.(34) 


MAYAN B A CABS. (35) 


Hotei, (Big Belly). 
Benzai, (Serpent Being). 
Fukurokujin (White Being). 
Daikoku (Great Black). 
Ebisu, patron of Daily Food. 


Hobnil (the Belly). 
Canzicnal (Serpent Being). 
Zaczini (White Being). 
Hozan Ek (Black One). 
Yum Kaax, lord of Harvests. 



^34) Japan as it was and is. p. 272. Hildreth. 

(35) A Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics, p. 41. Brinton. 



20 



Whence Came the American Indians 



The Japanese gods of wealth reached that land from 
China with Buddhism in 507-31 A. D., only the last one being 
a native ; they reached America at a still later date. 

The Chinese and Aztec-Mayan people based their system 
of government upon the cardinal points \ they each existed 
under a Quadriform Constitution. The Chinese world was flat 
and square ; Loh, the capital, was in the exact center of heaven 
and earth. (36) Formerly the Emperor made four tours of inspec- 
tion — to the east in the second month, to the south in the fifth 
month, to the west in the eighth month, and to the north in the 
eleventh month ; during the four following years the nobles 
appeared at court, those from the east coming the first year, 
those from the south the second, from the west in the third, and 
from the north in the fourth/ 37 ) By this system of cardinal point 
inspection and reports the Middle Kingdom was governed. 
China was divided into four quarters upon the line of the cardi- 
nal points ; the Chief of the Four Mountains was the head of 
the four groups of officials, each of which ruled a quarter. The 
Zunis, Mexicans, Mayans and Peruvians formed their govern- 
ment upon the same constitutional lines ; their respective capi- 
tals were in the center of what each declared to be a square and 
flat world. Cushing has shown us how the clans of Zuni were 
assigned to the cardinal points, and how each clan was given its 
color, element, season, activity, society and viscera. (38) Zelia 
Nuttall has clearly pointed out the application of this same 
arrangement in the markets and domestic affairs among the 
Mexicans/39) and it prevailed as a constitutional basis in Central 
America and Peru and is well shown in the divisions of the differ- 
ent empires upon the cardinal point line. 

Peking is a square, walled city and may be taken as the 
model in this quadriform scheme; the " Carnation Prohibited 
city " occupies the center and here are the sacred buildings and 
palaces of the "Son of Heaven." In the center of the main 
city lies the King Shan, a square, walled enclosure with a great 

(36) The Chinese Classics ; Shu King, vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 90-94. Chalmers. 

(37) The Chinese Classics ; The Canon of Shun, p. 37. Legge. 

(38) Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 367-72. Cushing. 

(39) Note on the Ancient Mex. Cal. system, p. 21. Nuttall. 



Whence Came the American Indians 



21 



teocalli occupying its center. (40) At each central cardinal point 
on its walls a battlemented gateway opens outward, and the prin- 
cipal boulevards run thence north, south, east and west to the 
outer walls, where they connect with the great roads of the em- 
pire. By this system, springing from the central teocalli the 
nation is divided into four quarters on the line of the cardinal 
points. In the center of the City of Tenochtitlan stood the same 
great teocalli and sacred edifices, surrounded by the same square 
wall, pierced at the same central points by the same battlemented 
gateways, opening upon the same four great roads to the cardinal 
points, and dividing the nation in the same way into quarters. 
This identical plan was followed in Cuzco,^) and in nearly all 
the cities of Mexico and Central America. It is distinctly a 
northern Mongolian arrangement, and is found in Mukden (42%) 
and other Mongolian capitals as well as in Peking. 

The Chinese and the American nations accurately measured 
the length of the solar year, and fixed the dates of the solstices 
and equinoxes by the same simple device of the gnomon, a pillar 
which measured the length of the shadow at noon tide. The 
Chinese believed that the gnomon cast a straight shadow only at 
Loh, their capital; "here it was not found to deviate in either 
direction and its length on midsummer day was to the length of 
the gnomon as 15 to 80.(43) Of Peruvian astronomy Squeir tells 
us that "the period of the equinoxes they determined by the 
help of a solitary pillar, or gnomon, placed in the center of a 
circle which was described in the area of the great temple, and 
traversed by a diameter that was drawn from east to west."(44) 
According to the authority of Zelia Nuttall and Gallatin, the 
Aztecs and Mayans also determined the dates of the solstices 
and equinoxes by the use of the same simple instrument. (45) 

In Peru, Central America and Mexico the solar year began 

(40) The Middle Kingdom. Vol. 1. pp. 66-71. Williams. 

(41) Conquest of Mexico, Bk. 4, Chap. 2. Prescott; Native [.Races, Vol. 2, p. 
561-578. Bancroft. 

(42) Conquest of Peru, Book 3, Chap. 8. Prescott. 
(42%) The Middle Kingdom. Vol. 1. p. 192-98. Williams. 

(43) The Chinese Classics; Shu-King; vol. 3, pt.l, pp. 90-91. Chalmers. 

(44) Peru, page 525. Squeir. 

(45) Trans. Am. Eth. Soc, vol. 1, p. 79. Gallatin. Note on the Ancient 
Mex. Cal. System, pp. 13-17. Nuttall. 



22 



Whence Came the American Indians 



upon the date of the winter solstice/46) And so it did in China. 
Davis says of the beginning of the Chinese year : " In an astro- 
nomical sense they may be said to have a solar year as well as a 
lunar, and the winter solstice makes its annual limit "(47) Through- 
out Mongol-land, in China and in America, at midnight at the 
winter solstice was the beginning of a new period. 

In China, Japan, Mexico, Central America and Peru the 
four greatest national festivals coincided in time with the solstices 
and equinoxes. Four times each year the Emperor of each of 
these nations, dressed in his royal robes, surrounded by his 
nobles, accompanied by priests bearing incense and sacrifices and 
preceeded by musicians beating the temple drums, with the same 
display and ceremony, mounted the steps of a terraced altar and 
knelt upon its summit in humility and imperial obeisance to the 
nation's god. Upon the same day of the year, on the same form 
of an altar, with similar ceremonies and sacrifices, preceeded in 
each case by imperial fasting, each emperor celebrated the advent 
of the same movement of the sun.^s) Each of these four move- 
ments, and each season marked by its date, was assigned to a 
cardinal point, and by this combination of three of the most 
striking manifestations of nature — the solstices and equinoxes, 
the cardinal points and the seasons — did these children of their 
common Mother Earth persuade themselves that their philosophy 
was founded upon the rock of truth and science and regulated by 
the power of high Heaven. 

Other than the four great festivals at the solstices and equi- 
noxes the Chinese and American nations held sacred festivals of 
the same kind and character and about the same number each 
year ; they were regulated in time in each land, first by the sol- 
stices and equinoxes and second by the lunar periods. 

The great altar at Peking, dedicated to the worship of the 
sun and fire, stands at the east gate, that devoted to the moon 
and water at the west gate, that to earth at the north, and to the 

(46) Trans. Am. Eth. Soc vol. 1, p. 79. Gallatin. Conquest of Peru, book 
1, pp. 57-58. Prescott. 

(47 j China and the Chinese, vol. 1, p. 284. Davis. 

(48) The Religions of China, pp. 32, 86, Legge ; Problems of the Far East, 
p. 262, Cnrzon ; Social Life of the Chinese, vol. 2, p. 72, Doolittle ; Note on An- 
cient Am. Cal. System, pp. 10-17, 19, Nuttall. 



Whence Came the American Indians 



23 



sky and air at the south ; in the Pah Kwa of Fuhhi, the ele- 
ments are assigned, fire to the east, water to the west, earth to 
the north and air to the south. (49) The Aztecs and Mayans as- 
signed these same elements to the cardinal points, fire to the 
east, air to the south, water to the north, and earth to the west, (so) 
They made identically the same assignments of colors, elements, 
viscera, deities, birds, planets and other functions and elements 
of nature to the cardinal points, all in accordance with their 
common Quadriform Constitution. (sO 

The old calendar system of China, combining its astrology 
and chronology, found its way into the New World. We have 
noticed that in both these regions the solar year began at the 
winter solstice. Besides the solar year each had a lunar year. 
The date of the beginning of the lunar year in America has not 
been agreed upon. The Aztec New Year's day has been fixed at 
various dates between January 1 and March 30, no two authors 
being able to agree, or to give a good reason for their assign- 
ments. Zelia Nuttall seems to have been the first to suggest the 
rule by which to determine this point ; she fixed it at the new 
moon nearest to the spring equinox, and her conclusion is sub- 
stantially correct. (52) «I n Thibet the New Year's festival prop- 
erly begins at the new moon, and may be delayed till some time 
in February. The festival begins at midnight and lasts fifteen 
days."(53) "The Japanese year begins at the new moon nearest 
to the fifth of February (the middle point between the winter 
solstice and the spring equinox)." (54) "In China New Year's 
day falls at the first new moon after the sun enters Aquarius, 
which makes it come not before January 21, nor after February 
19." (55) Without multiplying authorities it may be accepted as 
certain, first, that in China and America the date of the New 
Year's festival was not the same each year, and, second, that it 
was fixed in relation to the new moon and the spring equinox. 

(49) The Middle Kingdom, vol. 1, p. 628. Williams. 

(50) The Aztecs, p. 107, Biart ; a Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics, p. 41. 
Brinton. 

(51) Third Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 49-50. Thomas. 
152) .Note on the Ancient Mex. Cal. System, p. 9. Nuttall. 

(53) Buddhism, p. 342. Williams. 

(54) Japan as It Was and Is, p. 271. Hildreth. 
v 55) The Middle Kingdom, vol. 2, p. 70, Williams. 



24 Whence Came the American Indians 



In China " the year is divided into seventy -two periods of 
five days each, an arrangement traced to the period of the Chow 
dynasty. "(56) it is exactly true of the Aztec-Mayan year, also, 
that it was divided into seventy-two periods of five days each. 
In both systems there were five days in the week, and four sea- 
sons of eighteen weeks, or 5x4x18—360 days in the year. This 
did not give the exact solar year and both nations intercalated 
the necessary days. In China, Chalmers tells us, that this " in- 
tercalation was regulated by the natural recurrence of the sea- 
sons and rude observations from year to year. During the Chow 
dynasty, intercalary months were placed at irregular intervals, 
but most frequently at the end of the year. "(57) The Aztec- 
Mayan people also added the extra days at the end of the year, 
and by this common system of chronology both nations fixed 
the length of the true solar year of 365 days, round numbers. 

In both systems years were arranged into cycles, by Mic- 
tions ; the Chinese, since the Christian era, into five groups of 
twelve years each, and the Aztec-Mayans into four groups of 
thirteen years each. Each year of each cycle bore two names, 
in China the name of an animal and an element, in America the 
name of an animal and a number. These cycles agree in these 
particulars : their division into indictions ; the dual naming of 
each year ; the fact that no two years of a cycle could possibly 
have the same name. Both performed the singular ceremony of 
"binding up the years" at the end of fixed periods. 

The Aztec-Mayans employed a ritual year of twenty periods 
of thirteen days each, or 260 days ; Prof. Thomas has pointed 
out a similar ritual year in the Javan system. (58) 

Humboldt noted that the Mongolians and Americans gave 
animal names to days and says of this proof: "The six signs of 
the Tartarian zodiac, which are also found in the Mexican calen- 
dar, are sufficient to make it extremely probable that the nations 
of the two continents have drawn their astronomical ideas from 
a common source, and it is worthy of notice that the points of 



(5b) The Chinese Readers Manual, p. 3"-9. Mayers. 

(57) The Chinese Classics ; Shu-King, Vol. 3, pt. 1. p. 99. Chalmers. 

(58) The Maya Year; p. 62. Thomas. 



Whence Came the American Indians 25 



resemblance upon which we insist are not derived from rude 
pictures or allegories, susceptible of being interpreted in accord- 
ance with any hypothesis that it is desired to sustain. If we con- 
sult the works composed at the time of the conquest, by Spanish 
authors, or by American Indians who were ignorant of the 
existence of a Tartarian zodiac, it will be seen that in Mexico, 
from the seventh century until cur era, the days have been called 
"tiger," "dog," "monkey," "hare," or "rabbit," as throughout 
Eastern Asia, the years bear the same names among the Thibet- 
ans, the Tartar-Mantchoos, the Mongols, the Calmucks, the 
Chinese, the Japanese, the Coreans, and among the nations of 
Tonquin and Cochin-China." (59) 

Instead of six, upon wider comparison Humboldt would 
have found fourteen analogies between the Tartarian or Mongol- 
ian day names, and those of the Aztec-Mayan list, as follows: 



INDO-CHINESE. AZTEC-MAYAN. 



Dragon. 


Dragon. 


Serpent. 


Serpent. 


Deer. 


Deer. 


Hare. 


Hare. 


Dog. 


Dog 


Monkey. 


Monkey. 


Tiger. 


Tiger. 


Eagle. 


Pheasant. 


Vulture. 


Raven. 


House (India). 


House. 


Cane " 


Cane 


Razor " 


Flint Knife. 


Three Foot Prints (India) Three Foot Prints. 


Scorpion (India). 


Lizard 



The Chinese periods of fifteen days have meteorological or 
agricultural names ^ 6 °) the twenty-day periods in the Mayan sys- 
tem have the same names. ( 6l ) Thus we see that the days, 
months and years are named identically in the two systems, 
and that the systems are exactly alike in principle. Both 
systems contain different periods of varying lengths, the shorter 



Vues des Cordilleres, 157. Humboldt. 

A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language, p. 974. 

The Native Calendar, pp. 40-48. Brinton. 



Williams. 



26 



Whence Came the American Indians 



revolving within the longer, but all timed so as to come out 
exactly even at the end of the cycle. 

The Chinese and Aztec-Mayans grew cotton and manufac- 
tured cotton cloth • they worked in gold, silver, copper and 
bronze ; both worked jade and held it to be their most precious 
mineral. Prof. Putnam is of opinion that certain implements of 
finished jade found in Mexico aie the true imported Asiatic 
jade ; the Chinese jade maidens Yu-nu were worshipped in 
Mexico as Chalchihuitlicue and in Central America as Ix Tub 
Tun. 

It would be easy to extend these comparisons to an almost 
indefinite length in detail, for every feature of the Chinese type 
of civilization finds its counterpart in Mexico and Central Amer- 
ica, modified only by environment. 

Major Powell asserts, however, that "in the demotic char- 
acteristics of the American Indians, all that is common to tribes 
of the Orient is universal." Where, nearer than the Chinese 
type, will Major Powell find another monosyllabic tongue like the 
Otomi or Mayan? Where another hieroglyphic system Of writ- 
ing which is written from right to left, and from top to bottom, 
on paper of native manufacture ? Where another almanac like 
that of America and China? Are these things universal? Is 
the division of the Chinese and Mayan hieroglyphical characters 
into radicals and phonetics universal^ Where will Major 
Powell find a similar system of numerals ? Is the Quadriform 
Constitution of China and America universal ? Can Major Pow- 
ell point us to another calendar system having the characteristics 
in common between the Chinese and Aztec-Mayan ? Clearly he 
is mistaken in saying that all these common features between the 
arts, industries, institutions, languages and opinions of America 
and China are universal ; these two agree in these important and 
fundamental characteristics, and differ from all other tribes in 
respect to them. 

The civilization of China reached Japan about fifteen cen- 
turies ago, and probably came to America, over the "black 
stream" after that date. If we may place any reliance upon 



Whence Came the American Indians 



27 



native American records, it reached Mexico and Central America 
six or more centuries later. 

The Chino-Japanese and American systems agree in these 
particulars : the most civilized tribes spoke . a monosyllabic lan- 
guage, others spoke an agglutinative tongue ; their writing was 
ideographic and written from right to left, from top to bottom ; 
their systems of numeration were based upon the digital count, 
and their old numerals up to nineteen were practically identical ; 
their calendar systems were alike in principle and nearly so in 
details ; both divided time into cycles and quarters thereof; the 
solar year in both regions began at the winter solstice and the 
solstices and equinoxes were celebrated in both lands on the same 
day by the same national festivals ; both prepared almanacs upon 
paper of native manufacture ; the good or evil power of every day 
was fixed by the priest-astronomer, and each almanac also con- 
tained medical recipes and astrological formula and a table of 
religious festivals ; the same elements, colors, viscera, birds, sea- 
sons and planets were assigned in the same general scheme to the 
cardinal points. 

Their constitutions were identical ; the emperor was the 
" Son of Heaven " and his succession was provided for and his 
household ruled by the same identical laws ; their systems of 
government were based upon the square plan of the cardinal 
points ; the emperor was the head of both church and state ; 
their religions supported monasteries filled with monks and nun- 
neries filled with nuns. The people of both lands were copper- 
colored, were beardless, with straight, black hair. Truly, between 
these peoples many similarities "are discovered in institutions, 
languages and mystic opinions," — they spoke "allied languages," 
and "had other arts in common," — their institutions were "alike 
in many respects and their mythologies substantially the same." 

These fundamental similarities are, in the quoted official 
opinion of Major Powell, if well founded, sufficient to demon- 
strate that the civilizations compared are related and the result of 
a contact of the races. By proofs similar to, and equally as legit- 
imate as that offered to establish the existence of an Indo-Ger- 
manic language, the relationship of the Mongol-Mayan civilization 



28 



Whence Came the American Indians 



is demonstrated. It proves, too, that the American is an offshoot 
of the Asiatic stock, and of comparatively recent growth. 

Thus we are forced to conclude that the arts, industries, in- 
stitutions, languages and opinions of the American Indian are 
distinctly Mongolian in character ; that the arrival of the civi- 
lization of Mexico and Central America upon this continent is of 
comparatively recent date ; that the occupancy of America by the 
Mongolian stock occurred subsequent to present geological con- 
ditions. 

The demotic characteristics of the Mongolian stock were 
dispersed throughout the Old and New Worlds by migration. 

JAMES WICKERSHAM, 

Tacoma, Washington. 




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